New Member of the Gastrotheca Family: Gastrotheca mittaliiti

There is a new member in the family of Gastrotheca, the amazing marsupial frogs, whose geographical distribution extends from Costa Rica to northern Argentina.

Discovered in the Peruvian region of Amazonas, on the border with Ecuador, Gastrotheca mittaliiti presents the same “fascinating” characteristic as its close relatives: “females have a sort of pouch on their backs where they carry their young,” observed Infobae.

This characteristic has sparked “keen interest within the scientific community and made these species a subject of study for evolutionary and biological research,” the site notes.

Miniature Frog

This new bright green species also has several distinctive physical characteristics, such as its rough skin covered in small protuberances, prominent folds, and body structure.

It is also remarkable for its tiny size: males measure only between 2.7 and 3.3 centimeters. These characteristics were “decisive in its classification as a new species” by researchers from the National University Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza, whose work was published in the journal Zootaxa.

This discovery not only enriches the catalog of species in Peru but also demonstrates that “the high-altitude ecosystems of the Andes still harbor a great wealth of unknown organisms,” notes Infobae.